“Today, the world lost a creative icon,” US president Barack Obama said in a statement. “Few artistes have influenced the sound and trajectory of popular music more distinctly, or touched quite so many people with their talent.”

The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger also issued a statement on Prince’s death: “I am so saddened to hear the news. Prince was a revolutionary artist wonderful musician, and composer an original lyricist and a startling guitar player. His talent was limitless. He was one of the most unique and exciting artists of the last 30 years.”

NASA also paid tribute to Prince, posting a picture of purple nebula in homage to his iconic song, Purple Rain.

In a lengthy tribute, singer Frank Ocean spoke of how Prince helped him accept his sexuality. He wrote: “He made me feel more comfortable with how I identify sexually simply by his display of freedom from and irreverence for obviously archaic ideas like gender conformity etc. He moved me to be more daring and intuitive with my own work by his demonstration – his denial of the prevailing model.”